EPISODE II
Chapter 9: Lab Rat

One week has passed since the Battle of Kashyyyk. Taking a break from eliminating Archfiends, Zolph Vaelor has been called back to the Jedi Academy on Ossus following a recon mission on Orto Plutonia.

In the war room, Zolph met up with Luke Skywalker and Grein.

"So, how was Plutonia?" Grein asked him.

Zolph sneezed before answering her. "If I wasn't dressing warmly, I could've gotten frostbite from my own arm. Is that and the sneeze a good enough answer?"

Luke then asked Zolph. "So, what do you have to report?"

"There was indeed a Valkoran base on the planet, but the local Talz tribe already kicked them off." Zolph then changed the subject. "So, what's important enough to be calling me back here? Have either of the last two planets on that list become priority targets now?"

"No. Do you remember Gestroma?"

"You mean that psychotic Forceless-possessed bounty hunter I fought on Taris? Of course I remember him."

"After some trouble with him constantly checking his ship for homing beacons and getting him to lower his guard, I think we finally found what may be his base of operations."

"It's about time. It's almost been two months since the investigation started, so don't keep me waiting. Where's he hiding out?"

"When I said 'may', we're not absolutely sure, but he's stopped on the planet Nelvaan for a prolonged period of time."

"What makes you think Gestroma's hiding there and that this is not just another contract for him?"

"Aside from the native Nelvaanian tribes, there's not much worth of note on the planet, but curiously, winter is going on a lot longer than normal for the planet and he's been spotted disembarking from his ship with one of his prisoners there."

"Great. Just when I thought I was done with cold weather." Zolph responded sarcastically.

Grein then added some more information to Luke's intel. "However, I've done some research on the history of the planet, and I've learned that the last time Nelvaan had a near-perpetual winter, it was around the end of the Clone Wars. After sorting through some post-war anti-Jedi Imperial propaganda, I've also learned that the Techno Union established a CIS bio-weapon laboratory, where they mutated most of the adult Nelvaanian males into cyborg super-soldiers. When the lab was destroyed, the winter ended."

Zolph made a response to this history lesson. "Okay, so I take it this winter was connected to the lab itself, that Gestroma's rebuilt and reactivated it and now probably using it to make more bio-weapons from the people he's been taking hostage."

"It looks that way. But this was a large military-grade laboratory. I'm guessing he spent years trying to rebuild it and used his bounty money to fund it."

Luke then provided even more intel. "Also, there are scout reports saying there are some reactivated and reprogrammed Separatist battle droids that have attempted to attack them. According to some CIS military research on General Choi's part, there are even some droid models that weren't stationed on the planet during the war."

"I can see why this is a problem. If Gestroma's an independent Forceless and he's gained control of an abandoned military bio-lab and part of the Separatist Droid Army… well, looks like I'm off to Nelvaan."

Zolph then made his way to the hangar.

"May the Force be with you, Zolph." Luke said as Zolph left the war room.


In the Jedi Academy's hangar, Zolph prepared to board his modified X-Wing, which had been further modified – more specifically, it had the cockpit extended to include a second seat behind the pilot's chair - since the Battle of Onderon. As Zolph climbed up the ladder to the pilot seat, he was interrupted by a voice.

"Where are you off to now?"

Zolph turned his head to see Hiriss Moraana standing next to the ladder.

"You just got back from Orto Plutonia. You're not taking missions as a form of anti-depressant again, are you?"

Zolph answered her back. "No, I was just given some new intel to help tie up some loose ends. I'm headed for Nelvaan."

"What for?"

"We believe that we know where Gestroma's hiding and what he's doing, and from what intel claims, it isn't pretty."

"Can I come along?"

"Any particular reason why?" Zolph asked her with curiosity.

"I don't really have anything better to do at the moment, and you haven't made use of that second seat yet, so now's probably a good time as any."

R9-C4, sitting in the fighter's astromech socket, then beeped hostilely. "Second seat in fighter = no free riders. / Green-skinned lady = Free rider."

Zolph chastised his droid. "Shut it, Seefor. This is my ship. I decide who rides in it, not you." Zolph then turned to Hiriss and answered her. "Why the hell not? I could use some more company… aside from one of the most sadistic droids to come off IA's assembly line."

"Besides, I've lost several good men to that monster before your encounter with him on Taris, so I'd like to see him brought to justice."

"This isn't about revenge, is it?"

"I won't lie, that's a small part of my reason for coming. But more importantly, it's about making sure he doesn't harm anyone else."

"That's good enough, and you should know this already, but don't let the revenge part get to your head, because I already know what that's like. Now pack up, climb aboard and I'll give you more details about the mission during the flight."


Several hours later, Zolph and Hiriss had reached Nelvaan. During the flight, Zolph briefed Hiriss on some of the mission's other details, particularly the threat of recycled CIS battle droids and the reactivation of the Techno Union bio-weapon lab. After entering the planet's atmosphere, their fighter landed in a snowy forest clearing.

After the two Jedi climbed out of the fighter, Zolph shivered in response to the temperature. "You know, it's not as cold as Plutonia."

Hiriss then replied to his comment. "Probably has to do with the fact that, you know, Nelvaan's not an actual ice planet."

Seefor, having recently ejected from the astromech socket, replied to both of them. "Organics + Reaction to Temperature = Organics inferior to R9-C4."

Zolph sarcastically responded to the droid. "Yes, Seefor. You certainly don't have to worry about your joints and hardware freezing over."

"R9-C4 = Shutting up now."

Hiriss then spoke again. "If General Choi's report on the build up of the Separatist Droid Army is correct, we shouldn't have too much to worry about. The B1s and OOMs are notoriously stupid, and they were the most numerous units in the army."

"That's a good start." Zolph replied. However, his response was a case of tempting fate, as some dark gray-plated droids with glowing white photoreceptors and more human-like builds than the images of the B1s suggested emerged from the snow in a circle around them, armed with E-5 blaster rifles and vibroswords. "Tell me something, Hiriss: Do dumb droids know ambush tactics?"

"I'll assume these things aren't B1s or OOMs." Both Zolph and Hiriss activated their lightsabers and started deflecting blaster fire from the droids.

Zolph and Hiriss tried to slash at the droids, but they dodged the blades with inhuman reflexes. These droids were quite a nuisance, but they were destroyed within a minute not just by the Jedi, but by Seefor as well, who snuck up on one of the droids and disconnected both of his legs before melting him down with her built-in flamethrower.

After the fight, Zolph pulled out an encyclopedic datapad with a built-in camera and scanned one of the fallen droids with it. "According to the datapad, the things we just fought are BX Commando Droids. According to the history section, these were an elite unit used by the CIS during the Clone Wars, designed to be superior to the B1s in both combat ability and intelligence. What kept them from outright replacing the B1s were their production costs, and as such, only a small number of these things were ever produced."

"I'm guessing the CIS was incredibly cheap, because from what I understand, their leadership was compromised mostly of corporate armies." Hiriss responded.

"Gestroma may be crazy, but he's definitely not an idiot if these are his main infantry units." Zolph then turned his attention to Seefor. "Seefor, we need you to guard the ship from any more droids that come by while Hiriss and I look for the laboratory."

Seefor beeped back. "Guard duty = Boring + Necessary / R9-C4 = Guard ship + Exterminate / R9-C4 = Exterminate." Seefor then chirped mischievously while Zolph and Hiriss headed further into the forest.

"Zolph, did I ever tell you that your droid scares me?" Hiriss asked him.

"You have, and don't worry, she scares me too. Come to think of it, I don't know anyone aside from Juganak who isn't afraid of Seefor."


As they moved through Nelvaan's snowy forests, Zolph and Hiriss sought a local Nelvaanian tribe for guidance, fighting through more reactivated Separatist droid forces - in addition to the Commando Droids and the slower but heavily-armored B2 Super Battle Droids - that were well-suited for ambush tactics, such as Dwarf Spider Droids, Chameleon Droids, LM-432 Crab Droids and Retail Caucus Droids, either buried in the snow or hiding in the trees.

As fate would have it, the two Jedi investigators came across a hunting party of blue-furred lupine warriors – Nelvaanians, still in their primitive stage of civilization, using spears instead of blasters - fighting against a large three-legged droid with a bulb-like head, three sets of photoreceptors and three blaster cannons. This large Octuptarra Droid was a difficult opponent for them, as it could see from all sides of its body at once and could fire in multiple directions at once. However, the cannons were all connected to the same head, and while they could all swivel vertically, they all relied on the head to aim. As a result, it could only really focus on one set of targets at a time. Despite the technological disadvantage the Nelvaanians had against the remnants of the CIS droid army, they were able to disable the Octuptarra through teamwork, having one warrior to draw its attention while the others hurled large stones at its neck area until the head snapped off.

Another Octuptarra then entered the scene. Zolph proceeded to draw its fire while Hiriss leaped onto it before slashing off one of its legs. After the droid fell down, she stabbed into its central processor, shutting it down for good.

"If there's a creature resembling these droids, I'll bet it's pretty ugly." Zolph commented.

"Believe it or not, there actually is a creature these droids were modeled after from Skako." Hiriss responded.

"You don't say? I guess high-pressure atmospheres do wonders with biology. They'd fit in well with the Forceless Collective's army."

The warriors of the Nelvaanian hunting party cautiously pointed their spears towards the Jedi, but their leader spoke to them and they lowered their weapons. Zolph and Hiriss weren't overly familiar with the Nelvaanian language, but as they heard him speak, they picked up his language pretty quickly.

"I take it you two are of these 'Jedi' our chieftain spoke of?" The pack leader then introduced himself. "I am Varzos. Forgive my brothers' impulsiveness. Our people have developed an aversion to technology ever since an incident fifty of your standard years ago that brought about a never-ending winter to the Great Mother, and altered most of our warriors." According to what Zolph learned about Nelvaanian culture before the mission, "Great Mother" was what they referred to the planet as.

Zolph then spoke to him. "I don't blame you. We all develop biases against things that have caused us pain in the past. Also, I assume your party is searching for the place that caused all this? Because it looks like your 'Great Mother' is going through that again."

"So you came here knowing of our plight?"

"Actually, since your people have been cut off from the rest of the galaxy, we weren't even aware of it until recently, and only had history to look to to be aware of your troubles. We actually came here to hunt down a ruthless killer, and we believe there may be a correlation between him and the problems this world is going through right now."

"Are you sure? The mechanical monstrosities we've been dealing with for the past few years come from the same army that terrorized us back then."

"That army's been dissolved for half-a-century now, and some of the remaining machines from that army are now in the hands of criminals and scavengers. Anyway, could you tell me and my friend where we could find the source of this winter? If you do, we can put an end to this once more."

"I'd like to, but we're wary of outsiders at this point, including Jedi. Not too long after the first never-ending winter ended, another army – a corrupted shadow of the same army led by the Ghost Hand who saved our people before - came and rebuilt the place of dark science for their own uses before we fought back and forced them to retreat."

Zolph then thought to himself. "So it wasn't Gestroma who rebuilt the laboratory. It was the Galactic Empire." He then spoke to Varzos once more. "Why didn't you destroy the lab again?"

"We would have if we were familiar with the workings of the invaders' technology, but they shut it down so we'd turn a blind eye to it eventually. Besides, it was the Ghost Hand who destroyed the place of dark science the first time."

"And who is this 'Ghost Hand' you speak of?"

"A hero from our legends. As the name implies, he lost his right arm in battle, but it was replaced with a phantom limb and he was able to defeat his enemies without even laying a finger on them. A Jedi from outside with an artificial arm and similar powers named Anakin matched our myths and saved the Great Mother. But there's more to the myth. The arm eventually corrupted the warrior and destroyed all those he held dear to him. Similarly, this Anakin came back here corrupted - not by the arm – and brought another terror. Even though he went by a new name and wore a concealing suit of black armor, our shaman still recognized him."

Intrigued by the description, Zolph took the glove off his right and pulled up his sleeve, revealing his prosthetic right arm to Varzos. "Are you sure you want to do this yourselves? How many of your warriors have already fallen trying to end this? We Jedi are just as capable of great things too."

"Another Ghost Hand? You may be able to save us like the previous one, but what's not to say you will be corrupted just like the one in the myth and the one who came before?"

Varzos's comment struck a nerve in Zolph, as this reminded him of some recent events. Hiriss put her hand on Zolph's shoulder to calm him down and he spoke back to the Nelvaanian warrior with a cautious answer. "The Ghost Hand who came before eventually redeemed himself and died a savior, even if both the goods and ills are remembered. But if it comes to that, I will make sure there is someone to save me… from myself."

Varzos complied. "Very well. If you wish to put an end to the winter, keep going north and look for a cave guarded by the machines in large numbers. There you will find the place of dark science."

Zolph pulled his sleeve back down and put his glove back on his right hand to further avoid the risk of frostbite. "Thank you, Varzos. And don't worry; your people will be safe once more. And this time, the laboratory will be shut down permanently." Zolph and Hiriss then headed in the direction Varzos had given them.

Varzos then quietly gave a blessing to the Jedi as they walked off toward the cliffs. "May the Great Mother's blessing be with you, Successor of Ghost Hand."


As Zolph and Hiriss made their way to the reactivated Techno Union bio-lab, Hiriss noticed that Zolph was a bit uneasy. "Still troubled by what Varzos said?"

"Yeah, what if I do end up like the Ghost Hand in the myth. Similar things have happened before, and not just with Master Skywalker's father. I already told you about what happened with Dynn and her replacement arm and you could easily find some parallels between that myth and what happened to her, but ever since that incident, I've been slipping dangerously close to the Dark Side. Let's not also forget about the… thing I turned into on Kashyyyk."

"There are some disturbing parallels between the myth and what's been happening with you within the last year, but that's just it. Prophecies aren't fact. Even if they are spot on at first, they still have the potential to deviate from what's been written as it progresses. Like you told Varzos, Anakin Skywalker was eventually redeemed, and from what I heard, the older Jedi didn't expect that to happen."

"You make a good point. To quote Master Yoda from those textbooks, 'Always in motion, the future is.' In other words, myths and legends are entertaining , but prophecies are nerfshavit."


After traveling a few more miles through Nelvaan's forests and fighting through more Commando Droids as well as smaller Octuptarra Droids hanging from trees and Droidekas charging towards them, Zolph and Hiriss came across a cave entrance guarded by a larger group of reactivated droids, including more large Octuptarra Droids.

"I gather from the large number of heavily armed droids that we've found the entrance to the laboratory." Zolph commented as he as observed the defenses from out of the droids' sight.

Hiriss suggested a strategy. "Either the Techno Union, Empire or Gestroma may have placed some holocams outside to look out for intruders. On that note, we should find another way into the lab without picking another fight with the droids so we don't alert Gestroma and prompt him to destroy it before fleeing."

"Good idea, Hiriss. Less aggressive negotiations and more subtlety for once, because I'd like to fully understand what that psycho's doing with this lab."

Zolph and Hiriss split up and prepared to ambush the guards from both sides. They readied a few EMP grenades and used the Force to levitate them to the droid battalion and softly land them at their feet in the snow. After the grenades landed in the snow, they let out an electrostatic discharge that disabled the droids.

"Hopefully, Gestroma didn't notice or hear the discharge. Now let's find out what sick use he has for this lab." Zolph said to Hiriss before they headed into the cave.


After passing through some natural caves, the two Jedi came across what appeared to be a large generator and up above them, a spacious artificial environment. They had apparently found the bio-weapon laboratory.

"So this lab runs off Nelvaan's geothermal energy." Hiriss pointed out her observation. "That would explain the long-lasting winter."

"But what exactly does Gestroma want with some bio-weapons?" Zolph asked.

Zolph and Hiriss then Force jumped into the laboratory itself. As they looked around the facility and evaded the sight of patrolling Commando Droids, they went across walkways suspended over large open vats of indeterminable chemicals, possibly mutagens. This lab was definitely refashioned by the Empire.

Eventually they came into a dark room, only lit by some glowing green fluid-filled test-tubes with some grotesque life-forms of various shapes inside them.

"By the Force! What in space are these things?" Zolph said as he looked at the creatures inside with horror.

"I think these may be some of the so-called bio-weapons Gestroma was creating." Hiriss then made another observation on some of the creatures, which appeared as larger but barely more complex than a single-celled protoplasm. "But judging by their forms, they wouldn't make very good killing machines and could be easily killed by most other creatures."

Suddenly, one of the creatures – which appeared simply as a large ball of flesh with a deformed face, several relatively tiny arms and connected to some life-support wires – weakly scratched against the walls of its tube, almost as if it was trying to reach for Hiriss. It then made some sounds in what seemed like a feeble attempt to speak. "Mor… Mor… aan… a… Moraana…?"

"Hiriss, that thing just spoke your name." Zolph pointed out. "Have you met it before?"

This got Hiriss's attention, as the big flesh ball seemed to know who she was, but she didn't recognize it in turn. However, using her Force sense, she was able to discern the creature's identity. "Her, not it. This is Captain Shiera Hond, and she used to be a human. She served under me during the Battle of Metalorn, but she was captured by Gestroma during the battle and I was unable to save her."

What Zolph just heard horrified him even more than what he just saw. If anything, this reminded him a lot of what the Forceless Collective did to Dynn Manthis. He then clenched his right fist in anger, causing the power gauge to barely glow through his glove. "That bastard…"

"Com…mander… Mor…aana…" What was once Shiera struggled to speak in a voice that wasn't recognizable as her own. "You… came… for me."

Hiriss then spoke to the creature while shedding a single tear. "I'm sorry I didn't come sooner, Captain. I didn't even know you were here."

"But… you came… event… ually…"

Hiriss then pointed to Zolph. "You can thank Zolph for leading us here. It was his survived encounter with Gestroma that brought us here. But what exactly happened to you?"

"Gest….stroma… he's been…. capturing… humans… he claimed… to have… killed… on his… bounty… contracts… as test… subjects… for… his own… army…"

Zolph then spoke. "I knew it! No offense to you or Hiriss, Shiera, but in that form, you'd make a lousy bio-weapon. What use do you have to Gestroma?"

"I'm… one of… the failed… experiments… and now… a lab rat…"

"But did he make any that were successfully made? At least for him?"

"Yes… but not only… their bodies… were altered… so were their minds."

Hiriss then asked Shiera. "But how is your mind still intact?"

"Every… one… else… in this… room… has their mind… intact… it may be… a side effect… of the failed… exper… iments…"

The other failed test subjects in the room then started bashing against the glass of their own tubes, and those that were capable of speech begged the Jedi to kill them.

"I have… a req…uest…Please… put… an end… to that… monster…but… before you do… put us… out of… our misery… Just living… is a death… in itself…"

Hiriss answered Shiera. "We will, Shiera." She then walked up to all the test tube terminals and shut off the life-support systems, as it was the only keeping these mutants alive. With that, all the test subjects in the room died.

Zolph gave some orders to Hiriss. "Hiriss, start planting the charges on the siphon generator and other key areas in the complex and activate them when I give the word, because we're shutting this place down permanently, so no one can repair it again. I'm going to investigate the lab and see if I can get some more information out of Gestroma."

"Got it." Hiriss responded before heading back towards the generator.

Zolph then contacted R9-C4 via comlink. "Seefor."

Seefor then responded. "R9-C4 = Eagerly awaiting orders."

"Fly the ship somewhere close to our coordinates and then come inside the lab. Once you're inside, I need you to… create some chaos."

"Orders = Happily accepted."


As Zolph looked around the rest of the complex and moved across another walkway suspended over more chemical vats, he was suddenly ambushed and surrounded by a squad of Commando Droids, SBDs and Droidekas from all sides of the walkway. He then heard an amplified laugh come from the crowd, and a large fully-armored humanoid with a face-wide visor emerged from it, armed with a concussion rifle and a chain-link grappling cable launcher on his left gauntlet.

"We meet again, Vaelor. I thought it would take a year for this encounter to happen, but it happened sooner than I anticipated." The figure addressed Zolph.

"Hello, Gestroma." He then looked at the bounty hunter's left arm. "I see you got a new arm."

"Actually, it's the very same arm you sliced off on Taris. I just reattached it."

"If you weren't freaky enough already… I've seen what you've been doing in this laboratory, you psycho."

"I know. You met the rejects and killed them. I thought you Jedi said all life was sacred."

"We do, but when just being alive is torture for them, we Jedi have to draw the line somewhere. And for that…" Zolph then ignited his lightsaber, and the Commandos raised their blasters in response. "You will pay for your crimes against not just the Galactic Alliance and the Jedi Order, but life itself."

"Do you really think you can take us all on? Commandos and Destroyers were designed with fighting Jedi in mind."

"Oh please, I've been cutting these things down by the dozen all day. What's a few more going to do to me?" Zolph used the Force to toss the droids off the walkway and into vats below, some which contained acidic chemicals.

"True, and you're the only Jedi that has survived me so far. Which is why I've decided not to kill you." Gestroma raised his left arm and fired his grappling chain, wrapping it around Zolph's legs.

Zolph tried to slash at the chain, only for his lightsaber blade to bounce off of it. "I swear, the Alliance needs to put an embargo on cortosis. It's becoming too common."

"Well, I don't come from the Alliance." Gestroma then sent an electric charge through the chain to incapacitate Zolph and send him into unconsciousness.


Moments later, Zolph awoke to find himself strapped to the inside of an open test tube in a room with several more of them. In the tube next to his, he saw a Galactic Alliance scout, one of the few who had been tracking Gestroma for the past two months.

"Commander Vaelor." The scout said to Zolph. "I'm glad you came, but I'm sorry I'm going out this way."

"What do you mean?" Zolph asked him.

"You see those creatures in the test tubes?" Inside the test tubes were humanoid abominations that were no longer recognizable as humans if they were human, with sewage-brown skin and glowing sickly green eyes. "Well, I'm next in line to become one of them, and you may have to kill me."

Gestroma, who was waiting in the room the whole time, fired his concussion rifle – which emitted a shrieking sound effect - into the air on narrow-blast setting to get the prisoners' attention. "Hey, don't ruin the surprise."

Zolph questioned Gestroma. "I've got some questions for you, Gestroma. First off, why did you decide to spare me? Last time we fought, you said you'd mount my head on your wall."

"I was a bit angry when I made that claim, but then I realized I haven't tested on a Force-sensitive subject before and that would make an excellent addition to my army, hence why you're strapped in that tube right now."

"I can understand you've been using bounty hunting as a way to fund for the resources for your army."

"And as an excuse to blow off some steam while I prepare for my long-term plan. Besides, I also don't have to pay rent for living in abandoned military complexes."

"And what exactly is this long-term plan that's worth building an army of bio-weapons for? And come to think of it, why are you kidnapping and experimenting on humans specifically? Why not go after another species like Rodians for instance? Humans are pretty much everywhere anyway."

"Purging this galaxy of human filth. On the other hand, I want some of them to suffer as I have suffered." Gestroma looked to the human Alliance scout. "As for you, it's transformation time." He then pressed a button on a terminal, and the casing on the scout's test tube closed down.

"Do your worst, bounty hunter scum! I'll be dead before you can make much use of me!" The scout boasted to Gestroma as his test tube filled up with a transparent green fluid.

"We'll see about that." Gestroma pressed another button and the tube filled up with a solution that turned the fluid opaque and the scout's muffled screaming could be heard. Moments later, the fluid turned transparent again, and the Alliance scout had now been transformed to resemble some of the other mutants in the lab, but his eyeballs where still white and his skin still retaining its pink pigment. Gestroma then pressed another button to drain the fluids from the tube and open the mutation tube's casing.

With a now distorted voice coming from his larger mouth, the scout threatened Gestroma. "Once I'm out of these shackles, you're dead, bounty hunter!"

Gestroma countered the scout's threats. "You haven't forgotten the next part of the transformation process, have you?" Gestroma took off his left gauntlet and pulled up his sleeve to reveal a skin color similar to the other mutants in the lab. He then injected a syringe into his skin to extract some of his dark green blood, but Zolph also noticed some bright green eyes pop up in the blood after it was extracted into the syringe.

Gestroma walked up to the shackled but berserk scout as he desperately attempted to bite him. "The next step is giving you a sample of Gestroma juice so you don't kill anything without my say-so." He then injected the syringe into the scout's right arm, causing him to react in further pain as his body mutated even more and his skin and eye color matched those of all the mutants in the lab before the scout calmed down. "And now, you are officially part of Gestroma's Anti-Humanist Army."

Zolph spoke to Gestroma. "Just as I suspected: you are a Forceless. But curiously, the possession victims usually have dark gray skin and red eyes."

"You figured it out? Good for you. I assume it has something to do with the symbiote mixing with the mutagen. And with other species I've tested the symbiote on, they don't always get the same skin color."

"So you're a mutant too. That would explain your insanity. But why have you decided to Force me into your army? For all I know, the rest of your buddies in the Collective want me dead."

Gestroma laughed at Zolph's suggestion. "Buddies? They and those Valkoran puppets are just clients. You think the mercenary profession's just a cover-up for my true alliances? That's too bad, because I actually am my own master. In other words, I am the Herald of my own Forceless Collective."

"Well, looks my theory about other Forceless Collectives has been confirmed."

"On another note, why would they want a specimen like you dead? You'd make a perfect soldier, and with your Force powers, I wouldn't even need to mutate you to augment you."

"According to them, I'm immune to their possession, so if you try to put your own body fluids in me, you're not getting the desired results. Besides, Forceless can't access Force powers unless the host willingly complies."

Gestroma walked up to Zolph and readied a syringe despite what he said. "Immune, huh? Well, let's test that claim. As for the other part, I can always mutate you after the possession."

"Actually, even if you're trying to disprove it, I wouldn't do that."

"And why is that?"

"There was an incident on Kashyyyk where I actually got some Black Matter into my blood and my body somehow converted it into Force energy. However, I wasn't in control of myself and turned really violent."

"So you're not immune. You're just trying to delay your mutation as long as you can."

"Took you long enough." Zolph then shouted. "Hiriss! Hit the switch!"

An explosion suddenly rocked the laboratory and alarms buzzed throughout the complex. "Reactor malfunction detected. Maintenance is required or implosion is imminent."

Gestroma ran to a communications terminal and contacted a Commando Droid officer. "OOX-708! We have another Jedi in our midst! Find him and eliminate him!"

"We have another problem, sir." The droid officer reported.

"What 'other problem'?!"

"There is an astromech droid wreaking havoc around the base."

"You're kidding me. You were designed to fight Jedi, and you can't handle a kriffing astro-droid?! Now you shut up and destroy it."

"Roger, rog-" The droid's response was interrupted by some hostile beeping that Zolph could understand as "R9-C4 = Exterminate" being repeated over and over before the commando turned to fire at the astromech before falling below the camera line and started begging for mercy. The monitor then switched to static.

Zolph taunted Gestroma. "Congratulations. You've been foiled by my astromech, but no need to feel embarrassed. She's killed a lot of people before."

Gestroma walked over to the operating terminal and picked up his concussion rifle. "Your conversion has been postponed for the moment. I'll get back to you when I'm done with your friends." Gestroma then ran out one of the doors to the room.

Just shortly after, Hiriss entered the room through one of the other doors and cut down the Commando Droids guarding the room.

"Excellent response time, Hiriss." Zolph commended her.

Hiriss then used the Force to free Zolph from his bonds, who in return retrieved his blaster, lightsaber and comlink from the operation booth. "No problem, and I see you called Seefor over to put a wrench in the base without my notification."

"As dangerous as she is, Seefor is at her most effective when no one sees her coming. Anyway, did you hear all that?"

"Yes. I was waiting right outside." She then turned to see the mutated Alliance scout. "So Gestroma is a Forceless, but who is or was this guy?"

"He was one of the scouts that tracked Gestroma here." As the mutant attempted to bite at the Jedi, Zolph ignited his lightsaber. "The least we should do for him is spare him the horrors of being a Forceless possession host. It's what he would have wanted." Zolph then ran his lightsaber into the scout's chest and ended his life. "We'll be sure to report his fate to General Choi."

Some more alarms sounded in the room, and the other test tubes drained out and released the other mutants waiting dormant inside, ready to rip the Jedi to shreds. Gestroma's voice then came up on the intercom.

"Did you really think you were home free, Vaelor? Not yelling into a comlink obviously meant your friend was close by. You may not be my next test subject, but I'm not letting you and your friends leave this place alive knowing about my plans. As such, you get to be food for the successful ones."

The transmission ended.

The lab mutants first response was to spit some digestive matter at the Jedi, who quickly dodged in response. Zolph tried to fire his blaster pistol at one of the mutants, but his shots bounced off their chest.

The creatures then charged at the Jedi, who quickly cut them down in response.

Hiriss gave Zolph a status update. "I destroyed the repair droids before I blew up the reactor. Since it's not getting fixed before this whole place blows up, let's get the hell out of here."

"I couldn't agree more." Zolph activated his comlink. "Seefor, that's enough chaos for now. Get the ship ready for takeoff."

Zolph and Hiriss then rushed out of the mutation chamber.


As Zolph and Hiriss made their way to the exit through the siphon generator room and fought through more of Gestroma's battle droids and mutant army, they were stopped by the shriek of a concussion rifle. They saw Gestroma, who was not intent on letting them leave.

"Leaving so soon?" Gestroma introduced himself.

"Your little operation here is finished, Gestroma. Surrender." Zolph commanded him.

"So they can execute me later for being a Forceless? I don't think so." Gestroma fired another concussion blast at the Jedi, who quickly dodged it. "If I'm going down, you, the Mirialan and the deranged astromech are going with me!"

Gestroma fired another shot, but Zolph used the Force to redirect the shot back at him, much like he did during his first duel with Admiral Marx Gravlek at the beginning of the war. The resulting shot broke off Gestroma's abdominal plating and half of his visor, revealing him to have three green almond-shaped eyes taking up almost his entire face and a large mouth on his stomach, which had several sharp teeth and an elongated tongue.

"No wonder it sounded like your stomach was growling when you spoke. You actually do speak with it." Zolph commented. "So what's your story, ugly? Did you mutate yourself too?"

"Actually, those Imperial mongrels that once operated here made me this way. Separated me from my family in the prisons of Despayre and made me a lab rat for a mutant super-soldier program: Project GESTROMA. Once they transformed me, they stuck that symbiote inside me. Their project was a success, but they succeeded too well considering what I did next."

"So, that explains your hatred for humans. The Galactic Empire was infamously humanocentric. What species were you before they mutated you?"

"I seem to have forgotten what species I was, but for all I know, your species must pay for destroying my home and family and then turning me into this." Gestroma raised his concussion rifle again and fired a few more shots.

Hiriss then lectured him with subdued anger in her voice. "What the Empire did to you, your family and home was truly awful. However, it isn't a valid excuse for what you've done... and what you're planning to do. If the Empire was still in power, if you were only trying to get back at them, and just them as an institution, and you weren't experimenting on the people you captured, you might have stronger ground to stand on. But that time is over. Right now, you're just a self-righteous, hypocritical bigot who's clinging to a decades-old grudge to justify genocide on an entire species... just because you weren't able to get personal satisfaction from destroying the Empire by yourself. There were many more humans and other species that hated the Empire, but even most of those victimized by it didn't try to commit genocide on humans just because of one rotten group of them. Besides, my mother is a human from Alderaan, and she fought against the Empire you resent so much.

"That just gives me more reason to cleanse you, you mutt! Even if you weren't half-human, you Mirialans wouldn't be safe from my wrath, either. You biologically have too much in common."

Hiriss then commented. "So you've got a grudge with near-human species by extension." Zolph and Hiriss then activated their lightsabers. "On that note, you've become a threat to galactic society."

"If you wish to throw your lives away, then so be it!" Gestroma boasted before spitting a glob of highly caustic stomach acid from his belly-mouth and melting away some of the floor. He then shot a stream of high-pressure acid from one of his eyes, but the Jedi avoided both of those attacks.

In the haste of the Jedi dodging Gestroma's attacks – whether they be biological or artificial -, their fight eventually herded them back to one of the chemical vat rooms. Gestroma then lashed his incredibly long tongue at Zolph and wrapped it around his waist. He then pulled Zolph towards his gaping mouth in an attempt to skewer him with his really sharp teeth, but once Zolph was pulled in close enough, he sliced off the tongue with his lightsaber.

"Please stop using your own body fluids to attack us. It's disgusting! But thanks for bringing me closer to you." Zolph mocked him. Gestroma then clubbed him with his concussion rifle a few times before knocking him to a safe distance for firing it.

Gestroma prepared to fire another shot at Zolph while he was dazed, but Hiriss threw her double-bladed lightsaber at him and sliced the barrel off just as he pulled the trigger. This resulted in the rifle overloading and exploding.

Hiriss then provided a final blow by using the Force to hurl him over a safety rail and into a vat of an indeterminable chemical.

Zolph then asked her. "Is he dead?"

"I don't know if whatever that chemical is killed him, but if that didn't, the imminent explosion will. Now let's get out of here!"

"I couldn't agree even more, as funny enough, I sense something far worse than him approaching this place."

Zolph and Hiriss rushed out of the laboratory and found their ship waiting outside with the engines warmed up. They quickly hopped into the seats and flew away from the complex with R9-C4 just as it finished exploding.


Moments following the destruction of the Techno Union's laboratory, Gestroma emerged from some of the rubble slightly scathed but still mostly intact. He then roared in anger as he bore witness to the loss of his work.

"Thirty years worth of work as a bounty hunter and building an army, all undone by two meddling Jedi and an astromech droid!"

However, a figure wearing a black cloak and a cumbersome mask with blade-like fins approached him through the wreckage and spoke. "Pretty humiliating, isn't it, Gestroma?"

"And what's one of my most recent contractors doing all the way out here? Has your stupid war come to Nelvaan?"

"No, I'm just stopping by after a little errand on Alpheridies before I go back to my palace." Valkor took a look around the wreckage and saw the corpses of a few mutants and disabled battle droids. "By the looks of it, you were using our payments to you to make your own army. Your own Forceless Collective. I figured that if I give you a long leash, I would find out where you live."

"And now that another Collective Herald has arrived in my territory, I can assimilate you and make your army my own."

Valkor rushed up to Gestroma and suddenly stabbed one of his claws into his chest. "Actually, you're mistaken. It's the other way around, and there's no room for third-sides in my grand plan." Valkor's eyes then illuminated in his mask and some Black Matter started crawling out of his wrist and into the wound in Gestroma's chest.

Gestroma screamed in agony as the Black Matter took over his body.

"From now on, you will work for me for free….and forever."


After informing Varzos and the Nelvaanian tribe of the laboratory's final destruction, Zolph and Hiriss returned to Ossus to report their findings and Gestroma's defeat to Luke Skywalker and Grein. However, Zolph had some more findings to report.

"As we discovered, Gestroma was a Forceless unaffiliated with the Collective led by Valkor. And judging by the appearance of his 'Green Matter', there are probably other Forceless Collectives out there."

Grein noted some more observations based on what they knew so far. "Emperor Valkor, Lord Azath and now Gestroma. We have three known leaders of their own Forceless Collectives, or 'Heralds' as the last of those three called them. And to add to what Azath claimed, Forceless are created through artificial means."

"And according to Gestroma, he started off as an inmate from Despayre and was mutated and infused with the Forceless symbiote after the Empire blew it up with the Death Star. But where did the Empire get the symbiote from and how did he become a Herald?"

Hiriss chimed in on the conversation. "The Force flows from life itself, correct?"

"Yeah?"

Grein added on. "And from what we sensed, Forceless carry that same feeling as wounds in the Force. So I now theorize that Forceless are born when life is snuffed out on a large scale, and the Empire's symbiote came from the destruction of Despayre. When someone dies, the Living Force dissipates from that being, but it's only like the prick of a needle to the Cosmic Force since new life is created almost every second. But when too many beings die in succession, too much of the Living Force is lost and it is wounded, and these Forceless - creatures that are a desperate attempt to patch up the wound - are created, but they can't really substitute for what has been lost."

Zolph made a response. "If that's the case, I shudder to think of how many Forceless Collectives there could be, because from what little I know of galactic history, it's littered with genocidal idiots who could have inadvertently created them."

Grein tried to ease his worries. "Don't worry. If there are other Forceless Collectives out there or Herald-less symbiotes, they are harmless compared to the one we're currently fighting against."

Hiriss then chimed in. "Besides, if any of them become threats like Gestroma or Valkor, we'll deal with them as they come. For now, they're innocent as far as we know, even if their origins are unsettling."

Luke changed the subject as he was listening to the discussion. "In other news while you and Hiriss were out, the Kur'Ada Equalists were defeated and their enclave was destroyed by the Valkoran. We've got plenty of Force-blind Miraluka refugees settling into Alliance space and some report the presence of a monster in a humanoid body devouring their leader alive."

Zolph responded. "Let me guess: Valkor?"

Grein answered his guess. "I would assume that's the case."